Getting Involved

Here are two strategies I’ve used to get the legal department more involved in the larger corporation organization.

First, I’ve shown my clients in the company that the legal department can add a lot of value to deals. I’ve worked to demonstrate that we’re not obstructionist, that we can facilitate success and find ways to add value to transactions. Now, employees come to us for guidance on how to improve their transactions.

On a more granular level, I implemented a system under which all executed contracts are required to have an initialed legal department stamp. I initially implemented it because, as contracts were being constantly sent back and forth by e-mail, it was important to ensure that the right version was being signed. This turned out to be a good system for not only version control, but also for making sure the legal department was involved in transactions and had the opportunity to review all documents. When people started coming to the department for the stamp, we were guaranteed to have a chance to review everything that was getting signed.

This blog post is a modified excerpt from a recent interview I did with Priori Legal. Click here to read the full interview.